Police search bins for missing girl

Police took to the streets to search bins for clues in the hunt for Shannon Matthews, who failed to return home from school last Tuesday afternoon.

The youngster, from Moorside Road, Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire, had been on a swimming trip with classmates shortly before her disappearance.

Speaking near Shannon's home, Chief Superintendent Barry South said he still hoped to find her alive. "I think the size of the search, the extent of what we're doing, the resources going in - we're not going to lose hope," he said. "My priority has been the same right from the very outset - we are doing our best to locate Shannon safe and well."

Fifty specialist police officers were drafted in to check wheelie bins on the route Shannon would have taken home from West Moor Junior School. The bins had been left uncollected since last Tuesday so that officers could check the contents. Police said they were particularly interested in tracing any items of Shannon's clothing and her distinctive boots.

Mr South said: "We're emptying the bins, checking the refuse to make sure there's nothing there that could link us to Shannon's whereabouts. Over the past week, we've recovered more than 500 items of property. I can say at this moment in time, we believe we've not found anything that links directly to Shannon."

Officers have searched more than 200 homes and received over 300 calls from the public. The police operation, which has involved 250 officers and desperate day-and-night searches by friends and relatives, has so far failed to find any trace of Shannon.

On Sunday, the police operation focused on areas close to her family home and groups of officers could be seen conducting house-to-house inquiries in the vicinity. A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police described the investigation as "extensive", but stressed that the door-to-door inquiries were part of the wider hunt.

Mr South said interviews were standard as part of such a major inquiry. "In an inquiry of this nature, we're going to speak with close family, close friends, anybody that might be connected with Shannon," he said. "I've said from the outset, I believe that somebody out there has a vital piece of information. We're constantly reminding people that it might just be that small bit that they think is not important that we need."

Shannon is described as timid and is white, around 4ft 1in and slim, with shoulder-length, medium-brown hair, which may have been tied up in a ponytail. She has blue eyes and freckles.